Currently, a ringback tone (hereinafter, referred to as “RBT”) service providing an RBT during call switching between user terminals has been widely used due to developments in communication technology. In conventional RBT services, one of RBT sounds, having been registered by selectively editing portions of fundamental notes of song pieces by a content provider, is selected by a user so as to be used as an RBT of the user. As a result, there occurs a problem in that a user should select sounds only in the limited region that has been selected by the content provider among total song pieces.
FIG. 1 illustrates a procedure for providing an RBT in a conventional system for providing an RBT. As shown in FIG. 1, when a user selects a specific sound file 102 from a predetermined web page 101 as an RBT, the system for providing an RBT records a user identifier and a sound file identifier selected by the user in a user database 103.
When an RBT is reproduced by performing call switching in a user terminal to which an RBT is intended to be provided, an RBT player 104 reads and reproduces the sound file corresponding to the sound identifier selected by the user in an RBT sound file storage 105 with reference to the user database 103.
However, since a typical RBT has been provided for several tens of seconds in comparison with the case that the whole sound is provided for several minutes or more in the conventional RBT service as described above, a user must use only a part of the sound having been selected and registered as an RBT by a content provider. Thus, diversified requests of a user is not satisfied, and a part of the sound must be selected and registered as an RBT by the content provider, and accordingly, costs required for the RBT providing service such as labor costs for editing of the content provider, etc. may be increased.
Further, a plurality of services have been activated, which sound files of several hundred thousands or more are secured so as to be provided to a user in a compressed form such as Moving Picture Experts Group Layer-3 Audio (MP3), Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), etc. In this way, in certain services, a function in which a part of the song that a user wishes is selected and downloaded as his or her ring tone (e.g., “cutting bell” service). Similarly, in the case of an RBT, there has been suggested a need for a function in which parts that a user wishes from total song pieces are selected and used as his or her RBT. However, in the conventional RBT system, there is a problem in which data storage volume required for satisfying the function as described above is significantly increased.
For example, in the case where a sound having been registered by a content provider is provided to a user in the conventional art, when a sound file is in a form of a 32 Kbps Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation (ADPCM) format and is 40 seconds in length, with a number of registered sound files as one hundred thousand, data storage volume required for storing all sound files will reach 16 GB. However, in the case where a user uses sound files of regions selected by the user himself or herself as an RBT, when the number of users is two million, the number of sounds selected by the users is on average two per user, and other assumptions are the same with the previous case, data storage volume required for a service of providing a sound selected by a user will be geometrically increased to 640 GB.
Accordingly, in order to provide the service of providing the sound selected by the user, data storage volume being about forty times larger than that of the conventional sound service is required, thereby significantly increasing costs for the service. Also, there is a shortcoming in which the larger the sound volume stored in a storage means becomes, caching efficiency of an RBT player becomes large, whereby the RBT cannot be reproduced on time, or sound is cut while being reproduced.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and system for providing an RBT, in which a sound of an output position selected by a user is provided as an RBT while data storage volume required for storing sound files is being significantly reduced by improving shortcomings as described above.